Software Engineering Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
Even though I had applied through campus, I received a phone interview. I've seen many complaints from Yelp interviewees stating that the technical interviews were conducted by non-technical (HR) personnel. This was not the case for me, as I was interviewed by an engineer.
The phone interview went well. Then, I received an automated rejection email within a couple of days. I told myself, "What the heck." But the next week, I got a phone call asking if I was available for a second interview. I responded, "I am 12 and what is this?" Then I received an apologetic call from the recruiter, explaining there was a mix-up and they were still interested. The recruiter asked if I would take a coding test. I replied, "Why not?"
The coding test consisted of a research-level problem in information retrieval. I spent a significant amount of time on it and submitted what I believed was an excellent solution. It pretty much covered everything the test required. I didn't hear from them for two weeks. So, I politely contacted the recruiter and received the exact same rejection email within seven minutes. lolwut.
Questions
What kind of projects have you done?
Which one was the most annoying?
Given a big list of searches, how would you write a function that returns the top 10 searches?
What improvements would you suggest to the Yelp site?
How would you use all the data at our disposal?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 10 interview experiences for the Yelp Software Engineering role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Yelp's interview process for their Software Engineering roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Yelp's Software Engineering interview process in San Francisco, California.
Yelp Work Experiences
- 4.0Freebies Mask Aggressive ManagementSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesMarch 13, 2013Pros: Free lunches and drinks, partyCons: Aggressive management, no product focus.
- 5.0Great place to workSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesSeptember 2, 2020Pros: Supportive Management: Listen to employees and be transparent.Cons: Should have better benefits, like 401k contribution, etc.
- 5.0Fantastic People and Challenging ProblemsSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesSeptember 22, 2020Pros: Yelp is a really great company to work for. Some things that I value: * Genuinely nice, friendly people across the board. My colleagues are a pleasure to work with and are always looking out for each other. There's no backstabbing or competition like you might find in other companies. * Challenging problems to solve. The work is hard, and Yelp Engineering is constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible. * Good work-life balance. There's no expectation that you work long hours or work on weekends; in fact, it's actively discouraged. Management is very understanding of family needs and personal needs as well. * Trustworthy, transparent leadership. The leaders at Yelp have to make a lot of hard decisions, but when those decisions are made, it's communicated clearly and with authenticity. * Remote-friendly. The company has been vastly expanding its resources for remote employees, and it has a good culture of communication to support remote employees.Cons: * The stock price. * Salary is probably not competitive with some of the bigger companies in the industry. * Yelp is still going through a lot of growing pains as a company in terms of processes, structure, and scale.
Yelp Interview Questions
